Vaguely related to the Where do you start when a Singer has dozens of Albums? thread…I didn’t post in that because by the time I got there I thought the general question had already been answered well enough and didn’t really have anything new or illuminating to add. But it got me thinking about artists who I’ve owned one album by that I love and have played many times, yet I never really cared as much, or at all, about the rest of their work. Not ‘one album wonders’ which has been done before-- the band or artist may have a long and successful career, but only one of their albums really did it for you.
Two of my best examples would be Spirit’s “The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus” and Wilco’s “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot”. Those I would both put in a list of ‘my top 10 desert island albums’. Spirit’s other work, I’ve listened to, and just didn’t do much for me. And Wilco, oh how I’ve tried to like a lot of their other stuff; I’ve wanted to like more of it, but it’s just not happening…with the notable exception of their Mermaid Avenue work, the first two volumes of which I do very much enjoy and still listen to occasionally. I remember a line from a critic saying something to the effect that because they’re using Woody Guthrie’s lyrics, the Wilco MA songs allow Tweedy’s talent to be showcased without indulging his worst songwriting tendencies. I agree! If it’s A) written by Tweedy and B) not YHF, I’m out.
Perl Jam’s ‘10’ I think is a fantastic album. I bought several of their other albums afterward but none really did it for me. I think I read somewhere that after ‘10’ Eddie Vedder, in his quest to be a Serious Artist, started intentionally writing less ‘hooky’ songs after that. So maybe that’s it, I don’t know. Don’t hate their stuff after 10, just not loving it. Black Crowe’s ‘Shake Your Money Maker’-- great southern rocker. The rest of their stuff felt rehashed and uninspired.
A lesser example for me might be Green Day’s ‘American Idiot’. I had absolutely no use for ‘Dookie’ or any of their other work. Then a Green Day fan I worked with said American Idiot is a good album for poeple who don’t like Green Day, and lent me their CD (OK, burned me a CD-R). I had to admit, it was a very cohesive, enjoyable story / concept album and I went through a phase of repeat listenings, though I haven’t for years now.
Interesting. “Shake Your Moneymaker” sounded like a good, but boring, blues rock album to me. Southern Harmony is where they really hit it out of the park for me. Same feelings about Ten. Solid, but kind of boring arena rocker cum grunge album. Vs. abosoluteky nailed it.
I agree with Wilco. No doubt an immensely talented band, but YHF is the only one I clicked with. Beach Boys Pet Sounds is another one, but there’s obvious reasons why it sticks out. Their other stuff is good, and some od the post-Pet Sounds work is a good listen, but Pet Sounds is the only one I keep coming back to.
While the Radiohead die hard are about Kid A or Amnesiac, OK Computer is the perfect album for me. I like The Bends and some of Pablo Honey, but OKC is the only one I really need to hear again and again.
Yeah, what can I say, maybe my musical tastes are more towards artists’ pedestrian mass appeal stuff than their slightly more hipsterish niche work
Same with Pink Floyd-- I was first introduced when ‘The Wall’ came out, loved it, and went on to listen to and enjoy all of their albums and iterations since their ‘Piper at the Gates of Dawn’ Syd Barrett days. But if you asked me what my favorite PF album is, it would have to be ‘Dark Side of the Moon’. ‘Really?’ you might say…‘the longest-charting album in history is your favorite by that band? You free-thinking rebel’.
Oh, I thought of an exception-- Chris Whitley’s first album ‘Living with the Law’ was a pretty conventional country-pop-rock album that had the hit ‘Big Sky Country’. I don’t much like that one. Afterwards he made many albums, all very different from each other. The one I love is ‘Dirt Floor’- a very non-commercial album of just Chris and his acoustic guitar performing very moody, fatalistic songs.
I’m not sure I’d call either Southern Harmony or Vs. “hipsterish” or “niche.” Both are hooky pop albums. It’s no Kid A or Amnesiac. Southern Harmony sounds like a band maturing, away from playing covers like “Hard to Handle” (I prefer Otis Redding’s original) to a fully realized sound with strong songwriting, a ballsy sonic space, and great orchestration. Besides, I hear more songs off Southern Harmony on the radio than Moneymaker. Vs. similarly is a growth of their sound, trying different sonic textures and song writing techniques on, with a lot of variety, from the Ten-ish “Go” and “Animal” to the clean sounds and strong pop melodies of Daughter and Elderly Woman, etc., it’s everything Ten is without being one-note. There’s songs on there my mom could listen to. I could do without Rats, though.
OK, maybe not quite the right terminology. how about, ‘mediocre mass-appeal’ vs. ‘nuanced and mature’.
Yeah, those are both great songs. I just, I don’t know, certain albums just seem to grab you more than others. I remember buying ‘Vs.’ with great anticipation and feeling a bit let down after I gave it a few listens. Might just be a ‘time and place’ thing. Sometime soon I’ll give ‘Vs.’ and ‘Southern Harmony’ another listen.
Their first studio album, Pickin’ Up the Pieces (2010), is a beautifully-crafted “neo-soul” album, and even sounds like it could have been recorded in the 1960s. Every song on it is great, it’s one of my favorite albums, period, and I listen to it often.
They’ve released three subsequent albums, and while the vocal style is similar to their first album, they started incorporating more modern synthesizer sounds, and it feels (to me) more like modern pop, and less like the sound from that first album. They aren’t bad albums/songs, but they also aren’t what made me fall in love with the original album.
MOBY’s Play is a classic for me. If CDs could be worn out I would have worn that one out quite a few times.
None of his other stuff clicked with me outside of maybe his first self titled album.
Two of my top-10 albums of all time are Radiohead’s Ok Computer and Flaming Lips’ Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. I think they are perfect, grand musical masterpieces.
I don’t have any other albums by either band. I do like a handful of non-OK-Computer Radiohead tracks but I have ZERO interest in any other Flaming Lips music.
Metallica’s “Black Album” (Metallica). Like for many, it was the first album I heard by them and was stunned. A perfect hard-rocking metal albums, but with great hooks in every song, without sounding like a sell out. Everything that followed was between meh and WTF is this shit(?). Only much later I checked out their quite legendary work from before the Black Album, but I never got into it. It’s not bad, but too much trash, too many notes, too repetitive and hookless.
The Lips did an assload of albums and I don’t know ever single one, but if you like “Yoshimi…”, you should like “The Soft Bulletin” and “At War With The Mystics”. They both are from around the same era of their career and musically similar.
London Calling, by The Clash. It’s a double album of awesomeness. There’s some fine songs on their other albums, but that can be said of a lot of bands.
I’ve tried. My brother and my boyfriend are big fans. Their other stuff is just a little too “out there” for me. This one seems to be the most “accessible.” Most poppy? Something dumb enough for me My favorite band is The Dead Milkmen so I like songs short, sweet and dumb!
Well, I’ve always liked the Lips’ outthereness, and I think that “Yoshimi” is just as out there as any other stuff they made. But I really don’t want to proselyte…
Molly Hatchet’s Flirtin’ With Disaster is a high energy southern rock album filled with awesome tunes - especially for driving down the road. Nothing else they ever did was interesting.
